Lee wondered if he was going to make it through dinner without planting a fist in Delano's face at some point. It wasn't enough that Delano was making a play for his wife – even if she was only a pretend wife – but he wasn't even trying to hide it. After making such a song and dance about how he'd wanted Amanda to be there as company for his date, he hadn't even brought one with him, making some lame-ass excuse about how she'd cancelled at the last minute in order to fly to Milan for a fashion shoot.
If she even really existed, Lee snarled inwardly.
"Oh I love Milan!" Amanda had exclaimed, perfectly in character. "The shopping is so wonderful there!"
"Well it would certainly be a joy to take you there and treat you to that," said Delano. "You have the perfect figure to set off all those perfect designs."
"Yes she does," interrupted Lee. "But surely your girlfriend does as well? Since she's modelling them and all?"
"Oh yes, of course she does," replied Delano, dragging his eyes off Amanda to look at Lee. "But your lovely wife has an innocent charm which makes her so much more attractive in anything she wears."
"Yes, my wife does have a unique charm, I'll grant you that." He didn't miss the warning look Amanda gave him from under her lashes and realized he needed to back down and let Delano run with whatever he was up to.
And indeed, Delano was turning to speak to him now, with a slightly unctuous air. "I'm so sorry that I was flirting with Sunny quite so much last night, Leland. Although to be fair, she wasn't wearing that lovely ring that she has on tonight, so how was I to know?"
"Oh I only just got it back today," explained Amanda quickly. "I was having it resized. And you know, I felt so naked without it!" She met Lee's eyes, hers twinkling and he realized she was enjoying herself.
"Resized?" repeated Delano. "I had to do that once in my last marriage. You know it is - after a few years, it just seemed too tight and uncomfortable."
Yes, Lee had just about had it with Delano's subtle jabs. "Not that kind of resized," he replied smoothly, ignoring Amanda's startled look. "I was having the diamond replaced with a bigger one. I wanted her to have one that shines as brightly as she does." Thank goodness the Agency had provided a gaudy enough ring for that to sound true.
Delano wasn't done yet though. "Oh I remember those days," he answered. He met Amanda's questioning look with a smirk. "Apology diamonds." He glanced down, then back up at her face. "I would often buy things like that lovely necklace you have on, for instance." He let his eyes drop again and rest lingeringly on her décolletage as if he was really studying her jewellery.
Lee knew Amanda definitely hadn't missed that one when that glint came into her eye. This guy was more like Davenport than they'd thought. "This little thing?" she said, sweetly, toying with her diamond heart. "Well, my darling Lee never does anything he has to apologize for, but this wasn't actually a gift from him."
"No?" Delano seemed intrigued. "Leland, your wife must have quite generous friends to have given her such a beautiful piece."
"She does," Lee answered flatly, then went on perfectly truthfully, "That one was a little thank-you gift from the Crown Prince of Zakir." He watched with satisfaction as Delano's eyes bugged out a tiny bit and Amanda nodded her confirmation.
"Oh yes, Rheza and Penelope are such good friends!" she threw herself into the conversation with enthusiasm now. "We're planning on spending some of our holidays hosting them in a little ski vacation in our chalet in Gstaad, aren't we Darling?"
"We are indeed, Honey," he answered, lifting her hand to kiss her fingers. "You and Penelope can light up the slopes while Rheza and I work on finalizing that deal for the drilling rights." He turned to Delano and said genially. "I'm sure I can trust you to keep that under your hat for now. After all those complications with Bo Johnson, the royal family is very leery about who they're letting into Zakir now. Gstaad is such a perfect place for us to be able to meet up and not be noticed."
"Did I hear someone mention Gstaad?" said a new voice. "That's a favorite spot of mine." Lee turned and looked up at Curt Hollander who had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and was now standing beside their table.
"Why yes," replied Delano. "Mrs. Cassidy was just telling us about her vacation plans there." He turned to Lee. "May I introduce Curt Hollander? He's one of the movers and shakers behind my restaurant expansion into East Germany. Curt, this is Leland Cassidy and his wife, Sunny."
Lee stood and shook the hand of the cold-eyed man surveying him. "Well, I'm sure it's a pleasure to meet you. I have to admit, I was hoping to get a little piece of that action myself – some of my companies would be very interested in accessing … opportunities… there."
Out in the van, Francine straightened up, tapping Efraim's knee to make sure he was getting the conversation on tape. All their attempts to get the microphone not to pick up the rustling from Amanda's dress had meant they'd finally had to resort to a much smaller bug hidden in Lee's tie pin. It wasn't as good for picking up sound, especially in a busy restaurant, but it looked like luck was going their way. Efraim nodded and gave her the thumbs up and inside the restaurant, from where he was playing bartender, Agent Sammy Dane surreptitiously did the same to Lee.
"Curt, please join us," Delano waved his hand to the fourth spot at the table. "We just happen to have room, thanks to Mikki's sudden change in schedule."
"Just happen to have room?" thought Lee. "I don't think so, Buddy." A quick glance at Amanda's expressionless face said she was thinking the same thing. Their eyes met, he lifted a brow fractionally and watched her head nod slightly in acknowledgement. Show time.
"I'd be delighted," Hollander was saying now, his lugubrious tone at odds with the sentiment as he pulled back the fourth chair and took a seat. "The pleasure is all mine at meeting you, Mr. Cassidy. You're a rare bird in these parts." He shifted slightly so that he was facing Lee more fully and raked him up and down with an appraising gaze.
"Please call me Lee, Mr. Cassidy was my father, as the old joke goes," replied Lee jovially.
"Indeed he was," answered Hollander. "A man ahead of his time in creating technological advances as I recall. Have you taken after him in that department?"
"Well, I like to keep that sort of thing under my hat," said Lee readily. "But I must say inheriting what I did has certainly made it easier for me to pursue my… passions." He paused and looked over at Amanda, dropping a theatrical wink, and watching her eyes light up with humor as she pursed her lips into an equally over-the-top blown kiss.
"Oh Darling, you say the sweetest things," she cooed.
"So is skiing one of your passions, Mrs. Cassidy?" asked Hollander abruptly turning to Amanda. She looked confused for a moment until he went on, "You were speaking of going on holiday in Gstaad when I arrived?"
"Oh yes!" she exclaimed right away. "It's so quaint and scenic there and no one bothers you! And the skiing, of course! Delightful!" She dredged up something from her mother's tabloid magazines and wittered on. "I used to love Klosters, but of course, since Diana started going there, the paparazzi are positively dreadful! Everyone who's anyone avoids it like the plague now."
Lee's jaw dropped open slightly – Amanda couldn't be doing better if she'd been reading off cue cards.
"But the skiing was so disappointing last year, wasn't it?" commented Hollander. "We can only hope for better this winter."
"Oh my, yes," agreed Amanda, not seeing the yawning conversational trap that Lee did. "I don't think I made it onto the slopes once last year."
"Oh Honey," Lee drawled in interruption, thanking God for that holiday with that stewardess whose name he couldn't remember. "The skiing there was marvelous last year – how could you forget?"
Amanda looked at him, her mouth a perfect 'O' of confusion until he nodded encouragingly. He couldn't help the twinge of panic as her face lit up with an expression of pure mischief. "Oh that's right!" she answered glibly. "I'd almost forgotten because I was spending all that time inside with that Olympic hockey player I picked up with the broken knee. What was his name, Darling? Oh that's right, Vlad and… oh my gosh, what was the name of that model you had at the same time? Genevieve? She was just lovely – and so limber, as I recall. She must have had gymnastic training the way she could keep bend in all those unexpected directions. "
Unlike Lee, Francine was free to give way to hoots of laughter as Amanda began to ramble, but Lee had the benefit of a front row seat as she really went to work on Delano. Leaning forward and resting an elbow on the table so that Delano really had nowhere to look but down her dress, she began toying with the diamond heart and added in a sultry tone, "You see, James, my Lee never has to apologize for anything. We have a very understanding… and open… marriage."
There was a stunned silence at the table as all three men stared at Amanda in disbelief, but it was Lee who managed to get his voice back first, despite his overwhelming desire to laugh.
"Yes, Gstaad certainly has happy memories for us, doesn't it, Honey?"
"The best," she answered, never letting her eyes leave Delano's and licking her lips slightly. "I can hardly wait for this year."
"I'm suddenly very thirsty," said Lee quickly. "Curt, would you care to join me at the bar for a quick drink while we wait for the next course?" He didn't really want to leave Amanda alone at the table with Delano and his wandering hands, but he also didn't really want whatever crazy thing she said next to be recorded for posterity on the Agency surveillance tapes.
Hollander grunted and stood up immediately. "What an excellent idea, Mr. Cassidy – Lee, I mean. No need to bore these two with our business talk."
"No indeed," agreed Lee, watching in amusement as Amanda lifted a hand and waved him goodbye with a slight shooing motion without ever breaking her gaze from the other man. As they left, Amanda reached forward to rest her hand on top of Delano's and Lee heard her start to speak.
"James… do you believe in reincarnation? Because I really think we might have met in a previous life…"
Stifling a grin, he gestured for Hollander to precede him to the bar where they both ordered a scotch – Lee's with ice, Hollander's without.
"I don't know why you Americans insist on ruining it that way," said Hollander gruffly.
"Well, I learned to drink it like this at my daddy's knee and never knew any better," explained Lee cheerfully. "But let's not waste time, Mr. Hollander – do you think you could get my company the same kind of 'access' over the Wall as you've gotten for our friend over there?"
They both glanced over at the table, Lee's hand gripping his scotch a little more tightly as he watched Delano's finger trail along Amanda's jaw before forcing himself to turn back and look at Hollander again.
"Well, you know how it is, Leland," said Hollander. "I'm sure I could find friends interested in getting a face-to-face conversation with the mysterious President of Dynamica Industries." There was something belligerent in his look that Lee knew meant he still didn't quite believe Lee was who he said he was and that he needed to double down.
"Well, I can get my people down here from New York at a moment's notice if you think we have a chance of setting anything up," he said with the blustering confidence he knew he needed here.
"Could you?" asked Hollander, a note of doubt creeping into his voice at how brazenly he was willing to offer up proof. "You must want this very badly."
Lee leaned in and lowered his voice to a confidential tone. "To be honest, my Board of Directors is very keen that we find some new sources of income and the future obviously lies on the other side of the Iron Curtain. There's money to be made by this latest Russian incursion into Afghanistan – and my board isn't fussy about which side we make that money from, if you catch my drift."
"So you will supply whichever side pays you the most?"
"And can keep the quietest about it," answered Lee. "Everyone wants defense companies to do well for their stock investments but no one ever wants to know how dirty their hands are, do they?"
"No, they don't," agreed Hollander studying him. "You know, the Cassidy name has always had a reputation for integrity – I'm surprised to hear you talk like this."
"Well, my father lived in easier times when you could afford that kind of luxury, but I…, well I have expensive tastes…" he glanced over at Amanda meaningfully, wishing he hadn't when he watched Delano's hand sliding along her thigh, and he knew his face must have reflected that when he turned to find Hollander looking at him with a raised brow. He lifted his hand to rub roughly under his nose and gave a theatrical sniff. "Speaking of which, if you'll excuse me, I'm just going to hit the powder room, if you catch my drift." He patted his chest pocket with a chuckle. "Perhaps when I come back and I'm a little more… refreshed… perhaps we could discuss this further?"
"Yes," said Hollander, not even hiding his disgust at Lee's hints about a cocaine habit. "I think we could both gain something from further discussion."
Lee gave him the thumbs up and turned to walk off to the back of the restaurant.
"Mens' room. Now, fast," he muttered down at his tie as he walked.
It was only a minute, maybe less before Francine's head poked into the mens' room, where Lee was leaning on the counter, waiting for her, scowl on his face.
"My God, Scarecrow," she grinned. "I wish we could have you both miked up. Between your coke habit and Amanda's nymphomania, this is like the best telenovela I've ever watched."
Lee gave a snorting laugh. "I never pegged you for the soap opera type, Francine."
"Shhh, our little secret," she laughed, then pointed at his tie. "Just you, me, Efraim and anyone who listens to these tapes."
"Yeah, well, this isn't soap opera, this is the real thing," he scowled. "Can you get me some names from the Dynamica board that I can drop into conversation? Get Sammy to drop me a note during dinner or something, maybe?"
"Already on it," said Francine. "Efraim started pulling up stuff the minute you started in with Hollander. And there's at least one that's going to make you very happy…"
Just at that moment, the door handle rattled and Lee grabbed Francine to pull her in for a long kiss. They separated after a few seconds to find Hollander standing in the doorway staring at them slack-jawed.
"Jeez," said Lee, rubbing his nose forcefully again and letting his eyes dart everywhere like a man caught mid-crime, while keeping Francine pulled close. "Can't a guy get any privacy around here? Come on, Honey – let's go somewhere quieter and continue this." They pushed their way past a stunned Hollander and headed out the back door to the parking lot.
The minute they were out the door, Lee released her and lost all the crazy look. "Okay, start from the top - what have you got? And hurry up – I gotta get back there before that guy gets any more handsy with Amanda."
"Like I said – good news," answered Francine and began to fill him in.